After the tragic hawk attack and the demise of Pepper, the hens at my mother’s house were (quite literally) cooped up. That didn’t sit well with them. They felt the need to adamantly reassert their pecking order and apparently, Checkers is at the very bottom. By the time she was discovered, a good deal of her back and wing feathers were ripped out and she was obviously in a lot of pain.
Glinda, Rosie and a handful of chicks made their way to Indiana with us. Hoping that the two other hens would be gentler with Checkers, the three of them went to live in the chicken coop while the chicks are growing a bit bigger before their venture outside in a spare water trough.
Nope.
Poor Checkers just couldn’t catch a break. We wrapped her fresh wounds in gauze and vet wrap until the bleeding stopped and put her in with the chicks. After a day’s recovery, this is what she decided to spend her time doing:
As the scriptures say, “. . . even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings . . .”. She had collected her multi-breed chicks of varying age under her wings and kept them safe and warm.
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Checkers could have easily become a nasty, grouchy hen because of the way her should-have-been friends treated her, but instead, she tenderly took on the role of mother hen.
I’m going to try to be more like Checkers.
4 Responses
She's going to make sure those babies are taken care.
Oh she is a good mother hen. Your photos are great. B
They follow her around like she hatched them herself. 🙂
Thank you! She's a special hen, that's for sure.